Who receives the benefits and compensation?
Short answer: It depends on which benefit is meant. Financial assistance (social assistance) went 58 % to households with at least one foreign-born member 2025, and the single largest group was single Swedish-born men without children, who received 22 % of the kronor. But the assistance is SEK 11 billion out of well over 200. The large benefits, sickness benefit, sickness compensation, parental benefit, child allowance and guarantee pension, go to more women than men, and Försäkringskassan does not report which recipients are born abroad. In total, 11.3 % of all 20–64-year-olds were supported by benefits in December 2025, the lowest share since the series began 2014.
Each benefit has its own recipients.
Benefits and compensation are not one thing. Sickness benefit is insurance for those who have worked, child allowance goes to almost all parents, social assistance is the last safety net. The table shows each benefit separately for the latest year available. No total is calculated, because the years, units and recipients differ.
| Benefit | Recipients | Paid out | Share of women | Foreign-born | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial assistance (social assistance), 2025 | 141,879 households, 246,676 people | SEK 11.2 bn | 49 % of the adults | 57 % of the adults, 58 % of the kronor | National Board of Health and Welfare |
| Sickness benefit, 2025 | 613,920 | SEK 44.3 bn | 64 % | Not reported | Swedish Social Insurance Agency |
| Sickness compensation, December 2025 | 214,152 | SEK 34.7 bn | 57 % | Not reported | Swedish Social Insurance Agency |
| Activity compensation, December 2025 | 34,440 | SEK 4.9 bn | 48 % | Not reported | Swedish Social Insurance Agency |
| Unemployment insurance, 2025 | 311,000 | SEK 24.4 bn | 48 % | Not reported | IAF |
| Activity support and development allowance, 2025 | 226,000 | SEK 18.3 bn | 47 % | Not reported | Försäkringskassan, SiS 2026 |
| Establishment allowance, 2025 | 16,802 | SEK 0.9 bn | 69 % | Newly arrived only | Försäkringskassan, SiS 2026 |
| Housing allowance, 2025 | 137,227 households | SEK 3.4 bn | 63 % are single women | Not reported | Swedish Social Insurance Agency |
| Housing supplement for pensioners, December 2024 | 306,552 | SEK 14.1 bn | 70 % | Not reported | Budget bill 2026, expenditure area 11 |
| Child allowance, December 2025 | 1,667,715 | SEK 32.0 bn | 62 % | Not reported | Swedish Social Insurance Agency |
| Parental benefit, 2025 | 876,657 | SEK 33.8 bn | 54 % of the recipients, 69 % of the days | Not reported | Swedish Social Insurance Agency |
| Maintenance support, 2025 | 139,138 parents, 193,202 children | SEK 2.6 bn | 82 % | Not reported | Swedish Social Insurance Agency |
| Guarantee pension, December 2024 | 1,227,037 | SEK 33.3 bn | 70 % | 65 % of foreign-born men with a pension receive it, compared with 34 % of Swedish-born men | Budget bill 2026, expenditure area 11, table 2.5 and 2.6 |
Paid out in current prices according to Försäkringskassan's open statistics; Socialförsäkringen i siffror reports slightly different figures for the same year, because it includes fees and deducts repayments (sickness benefit SEK 49.5 bn, parental benefit SEK 37.2 bn). "Not reported" means that the agency does not publish the recipients' country of birth in its open statistics, not that the share is zero. Pensions as a whole are at Pensions, support for families with children at Family policy and what each benefit provides and who pays for it at The safety net.
Is it the immigrants or the single men?
"The benefits go to immigrants"
- Foreign-born share of social assistance kronor
- 58 %
- National Board of Health and Welfare, ; 65 % 2018
- Foreign-born share of the population
- approx. 20 %
- Statistics Sweden,
- Social assistance per consumption unit, foreign-born versus Swedish-born
- 3.7 versus 0.9 SEK thousand
- Statistics Sweden,
For social assistance it holds in the sense that foreign-born people are heavily overrepresented: 57 % of adult recipients and 58 % of the kronor 2025, compared with about a fifth of the population. The share has fallen from 65 % of the kronor 2018, when many who arrived 2015 and 2016 left the establishment programme. Guarantee pension, the basic protection for those with low or no income pension, is also more common among foreign-born people. For the benefits that account for most of the kronor, sickness benefit, sickness compensation, unemployment insurance, parental benefit and child allowance, the agencies publish no country of birth, so there the claim can be neither confirmed nor refuted with open statistics. A rough measure exists at SCB: foreign-born people had on average more of almost every kind of transfer per person in the household 2024, except sickness and activity compensation, and the difference is largest for social assistance and housing support.
"The benefits go to single middle-aged Swedish-born men"
- Swedish-born single men without children, share of social assistance
- 22 %
- SEK 2.43 bn, 36,105 households, Socialstyrelsen
- Swedish-born men 40–59 years, share of adult recipients
- 8 %
- 13,608 of 173,222, Socialstyrelsen
- Men's share of sickness benefit recipients
- 36 %
- Swedish Social Insurance Agency,
Partly. Single men without children born in Sweden are the single largest household group in social assistance, both in numbers and in kronor, and the largest among those who have received assistance for a long time: 11,133 of them received assistance all twelve months 2025. But most of them are not middle-aged. Among Swedish-born men who receive assistance, 30–39 is the largest age group, and those between 40 and 59 are 8 % of all adult recipients. Outside social assistance the picture does not hold: women outnumber men among recipients of sickness benefit, sickness compensation, housing allowance, maintenance support, housing supplement and guarantee pension. Men receive somewhat more of unemployment insurance, 56 % of the kronor 2025.
Foreign-born households are, in Socialstyrelsen's statistics, households where one of the applicants was born abroad or has an unknown country of birth. Socialstyrelsen does not cross age with household type, so exactly how many of the single men are middle-aged cannot be stated. Sources: Socialstyrelsen, Statistics on financial assistance 2025 at the tables 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8; SCB, income structure by country of birth; Försäkringskassan and IAF as in the table above. Immigration and establishment are at Migration.
Social assistance has decreased by a quarter since 2020.
The municipalities paid out SEK 11.2 billion in financial assistance 2025, calculated in 2025 prices SEK 3.7 billion less than 2020. Three quarters of the decrease concerns households where someone is born abroad; for households born in Sweden the amount is 12 % lower than 2016. A household received on average SEK 78,888 during the year.
By household type, 2025
| Households | Households, born in Sweden | Households, foreign-born | SEK m, born in Sweden | SEK m, foreign-born | Share of all kronor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single men without children | 36,105 | 23,174 | 2,432 | 1,509 | 35 % |
| Single women without children | 20,686 | 21,013 | 1,466 | 1,706 | 28 % |
| Single women with children | 6,631 | 13,432 | 508 | 1,270 | 16 % |
| Cohabiting with children | 1,114 | 10,130 | 78 | 1,430 | 13 % |
| Cohabiting without children | 1,154 | 5,021 | 75 | 465 | 5 % |
| Single men with children | 1,804 | 1,522 | 129 | 124 | 2 % |
Adult recipients by age, 2025
| Age | All | Born in Sweden | Of whom men | Foreign-born |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18–19 | 12,227 | 4,450 | 2,274 | 7,777 |
| 20–24 | 16,681 | 8,304 | 4,636 | 8,377 |
| 25–29 | 14,639 | 7,672 | 4,593 | 6,967 |
| 30–39 | 37,525 | 21,379 | 12,632 | 16,146 |
| 40–49 | 34,995 | 13,445 | 7,461 | 21,550 |
| 50–59 | 31,019 | 10,889 | 6,147 | 20,130 |
| 60–64 | 14,936 | 5,270 | 3,234 | 9,666 |
| 65 and older | 11,200 | 3,493 | 2,078 | 7,707 |
Two out of three households have no children, and the single people without children together receive 63 % of the kronor. Households with children and a foreign-born parent receive more per household, because the assistance is calculated according to how many have to live on it. 63,743 households had long-term assistance, ten of the year's twelve months or more. The most common reason for applying was unemployment; 44,950 of the adults were unemployed with no other benefit.
Paid out in SEK million, 2025 prices. Adult recipients with a complete personal identity number, 173,222 people. Source: Socialstyrelsen, Statistics on financial assistance 2025, table 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8, and barriers to self-support 2025.
Fewer people of working age live on benefits.
SCB converts all days with sickness benefit, sickness and activity compensation, unemployment insurance, labour market support, establishment allowance and social assistance into full-time years, full-year equivalents. Two people who receive half benefit all year count as one. In December 2025 this corresponded to 676,182 people, 11.3 % of all 20–64-year-olds, compared with 14.9 % 2014. The decrease concerns above all sickness and activity compensation, but also labour market support and establishment allowance. Women have a higher share than men, 12.6 versus 10.0 %. Select Share to see women and men.
Full-year equivalents 20–64 years in December each year. SCB does not break the measure down by country of birth. Labour market support is mainly activity support and development allowance. Source: SCB, full-year equivalents by region and sex. The labour market as a whole is at Work.
Sickness benefit has almost tripled, sickness compensation has decreased.
Sickness benefit cost SEK 16 billion 2010 and SEK 44 billion 2025. Sickness compensation, the former early retirement pension, fell from 47 to 28 billion up to 2021 and has since increased again. Unemployment insurance follows the economic cycle: 25 billion during the pandemic 2020, 14 billion 2022, back to 24 billion 2025. Housing allowance decreased sharply 2025.
SEK billion in current prices, that is, not adjusted for inflation. Sickness benefit, sickness and activity compensation, parental benefit and housing allowance from Försäkringskassan's open statistics (gross amount paid); child allowance and maintenance support from Socialförsäkringen i siffror, where the years 2014–2016 and some other years are missing; unemployment insurance from IAF's annual statistics from 2015. The entire state budget by expenditure area is at State budget.
Unemployment insurance is the benefit where men receive the most.
Of the large benefits, unemployment insurance is the only one where men receive clearly more than women, SEK 13.6 versus 10.8 billion 2025. This reflects that more men than women become unemployed when industry and construction scale down, as 2020 and 2024. At Försäkringskassan it is the opposite: women take out 64 % of sickness benefit and 69 % of the days of parental benefit, and 82 % of those who receive maintenance support are women, because the children most often live with their mother.
Unemployment insurance paid out in SEK billion, current prices, and number of recipients in thousands during the year. IAF does not report recipients by country of birth; in autumn 2024, 54 % of the unemployed born in Sweden were entitled to benefit, compared with 41 % of those born outside Europe. Source: IAF, annual statistics 2025.
The difference is largest for social assistance and housing support.
SCB's income statistics are the only place where all transfers can be compared by country of birth. The measure is kronor per consumption unit, roughly per person in the household, taking into account that two can live more cheaply than one. Foreign-born people received 2024 on average four times as much social assistance as those born in Sweden, but the difference has shrunk from just over five times 2011. For general benefits such as child allowance and for sickness and parental benefit the difference is smaller, and sickness and activity compensation is somewhat lower for foreign-born people.
Mean in SEK thousand per consumption unit, fixed prices, for all persons in the household by the individual's country of birth. General benefits are mainly child allowance and the basic level of parental benefit; sickness and parental benefit etc. also covers unemployment insurance and labour market support. Source: SCB, income structure for households by country of birth. The taxes that pay for the benefits are at Taxes.
Social assistance and benefits in your municipality.
The share of adults with financial assistance has almost halved since 2010, from 3.9 % to 2.1 % 2025. At the same time the assistance has become more long-term: half of those who receive it have had it for at least ten months. The differences between municipalities are large. Select a municipality at the top to compare it with Sweden and the other municipalities in the same county.
| Measure | Year | Lowest | Middle | Highest | Sweden | Chosen municipality |
|---|
The middle is the median: half of the municipalities are above and half below. Sources: Kolada for the assistance and SCB, full-year equivalents, for the share supported by benefits.
Benefit cap, activity requirement and qualification 2026.
In spring 2026 the Riksdag decided on a cap on how much a household can receive in benefits, an activity requirement for those who have received income support for three months in a row and are able to participate, and that newly arrived people must qualify for some residence-based benefits such as child allowance and housing allowance through lawful residence and time in Sweden. The table summarises where the parties stood, in their own words in the debate or in the reservations.
| Party | In brief | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Centre Party | Supported the activity requirement and the main thrust of the benefit cap but wanted the reform to be followed up. Entered a reservation against the qualification and wanted exceptions and compensation for the municipalities | Report 2025/26:SfU21, reservation 3 |
| Christian Democrats | Voted in favour. Describes the benefit cap, activity requirement and qualification as a joint reform to make work pay more than benefits | Speech in the Riksdag |
| Liberals | Voted in favour. Highlights the national norm as a cap and the activity requirement after three months, adapted to the individual's ability | Speech in the Riksdag |
| Green Party | Wanted to reject the benefit cap and argued that the number of recipients is already historically low and that households' margins are shrinking. Entered a reservation against the qualification | Speech in the Riksdag, SfU21 reservation 2 |
| Moderates | Voted in favour. Describes the reform as the work-first line: those who work should have more left than those who could work but live on benefits | Speech in the Riksdag |
| Social Democrats | Entered a reservation against the bill on qualification for social insurance | Report 2025/26:SfU21, reservation 1 |
| Sweden Democrats | Voted in favour. Describes the reform as a step towards less benefit dependency and exclusion | Speech in the Riksdag |
| Left Party | Wanted to reject the benefit cap and argued that it worsens the finances of vulnerable families with children. Entered a reservation against the qualification | Speech in the Riksdag, SfU21 reservation 2 |
The qualification for social insurance came in proposition 2025/26:136, which the Riksdag approved in May 2026 through committee report SfU21. The benefit cap and the activity requirement were handled in the Committee on Social Affairs' reports SoU29 and SoU30; Socialstyrelsen describes what was decided. The Moderates, Christian Democrats, Liberals and Sweden Democrats voted for the proposals and therefore have no reservations; their position is taken from the debate.
Where the figures come from.
- Source: Socialstyrelsen, Statistics on financial assistance 2025. Recipients, kronor, household type, age and country of birth.
- Source: Swedish Social Insurance Agency, open statistics and Socialförsäkringen i siffror 2026. Recipients, amounts and sex for sickness benefit, sickness and activity compensation, housing allowance, child allowance, parental benefit, maintenance support, activity support and establishment allowance.
- Source: Budget bill 2026, expenditure area 11. Guarantee pension and housing supplement for pensioners, Pensionsmyndigheten's figures.
- Source: IAF. Unemployment insurance per year and sex from 2015.
- Source: SCB. Full-year equivalents per municipality, sex and benefit from 2014, and the income structure by country of birth from 2011.
- Source: Kolada. Financial assistance per municipality from 2010.
- Source: Riksdag open data. Committee reports, reservations and speeches.
- Not included: country of birth for Försäkringskassan's and the unemployment insurance funds' recipients, which is not published, and a total across all benefits, because the years and recipients cannot be added together.
The series come from Kolada and Statistics Sweden. Migration and integration are on Migration, the labour market at Work, families with children at Family policy, pensions at Pensions, state expenditure at State budget, taxes at Taxes and what each benefit provides at The safety net.